Do not teach this stuff to your kids

This morning I did something that would not have been possible a few years ago. My daily reading included Rafael Parente's blog which is written in Portuguese. I was able to do this courtesy of Google Translate. I was brought to his blog as a result of looking at who was coming to my blog and discovered he had linked to my article "Five Back to School Must Haves for Innovative Educators."

I found Mr. Parente was also a fan of Scott McCleod's blog and he had shared a post that he translated into Portuguese and Google Translate turned it back into English.  All of this would never have been possible if we had listened to Scott McLeod's tongue and cheek advice in the English-turned-Portuguese-turned English poem I read there.

The poem addresses a topic I write about often.  "Thinking Outside the Ban."  This excerpt includes some of my favorite stanzas.


dear parent
  teacher
  administrator
  board member

don't teach your kids to write
  online

pen and paper aren't going anywhere
since when do kids need an audience?
    
no connecting, now

no social networking
  or online chat
  or comments
  or PLNs
blogs and twitter?
  how self-absorbed
  what a bunch of crap

and definitely, absolutely, resolutely, no cell phones

block it all
lock it down
keep it out

it's evil, you know
  there's bad stuff out there
    gotta keep your children safe
 
a computer 24-7? no thanks  I don't want them
    creating
      sharing
        thinking
          learning
you know they're just going to look at porn
  and hook up with predators
we can't trust them

McCleod ends the poem advising parents and teachers not to do any of this because he is doing it all with his kids and he wants them to have a leg up when they graduate.

You can read the original poem and thought provoking comments at Scott's blog here or you can read it where I found it on Rafael Parente's blog at POR FAVOR, não ensine isso!!!